by Dan Davis
“The Marines can switch us off?”
“Their primary responsibility is guarding the ship against hostile alien boarding actions but they also provide internal ship security. There's no need for them to interact with the subjects but they have been called in to subdue the Artificial Persons and also crew members, mostly when boozed up guys fight in the mess hall.”
“They're the police.”
Diego grinned. “The most elite and heavily armed police in the system. When you jump Mael, you’ll have to finish him immediately. As soon as the UNOP Marines show up, they’ll take you down. And, guys, we’re out of time now, we got to wrap this up or we’ll be noticed.”
“Wait, let me get this right. The knockout switches in the back of our heads are disabled,” Ram said. “Once that is done, how are you going to get Mael alone, away from his cronies for long enough to take him out of action? Those assholes are always with him in the barracks and mess. He has his driver sessions in the ludus ring.”
Alina nodded. “I need you to help me with isolating him.”
“Ah,” Ram said. “You need me.”
Alina scowled. “I don’t need you.”
“We need each other,” Noomi said.
“We can save all our lives,” Alina said. “I will fight the Wheelhunter and I will win. But only if we do it my way.”
“Unfortunately,” Milena said. “Her way means that you will likely suffer a severe beating.”
Ram shrugged. “Just another day at work. What do I do?”
Alina came closer. “Mael is due for his counseling session tomorrow at 1400. When he's in the middle of it, challenge Eziz to a sparring match. Or simply attack him. While everyone is watching, I'll slip out and surprise Mael. Milena will neutralize his driver so there will be no endocrine support for him, while my dear Noomi here will crank my hormones up across the board, yes?”
“So I end up in the infirmary again and you end up, what? In prison?”
“With Mael dead, they will have to move their attention to me.”
“You’re sure you can kill him? Sounds like a lot of variables.”
“Real life is all variables, Rama,” Alina said. “This is not an Avar game. If you let the fear of the variables control you then are truly a slave.” She pointed at his chest, his heart. “You are the only true variable, the only variable that counts. Anyway, at the very least, if I can tear out his eyes, crush his throat or do so much damage that his recovery period will be so long that I will become Subject Alpha anyway.”
“We must go,” Diego said, standing and folding his screen away. He placed a hand on Alina's mighty arm. “I will pray for you. Good luck.”
“You two should return to the ludus separately,” Milena said to Alina and Ram.
“Noomi and I will go now to the ludus counseling rooms for a short time before I return. Give us a few minutes, Rama and if I do not make it for lunch in the mess, I will see you at the afternoon training session.”
While they gave them a few minutes head start, Milena pulled Ram aside.
“Outside this room and outside this moment, our conversations and our comms are monitored, you understand? Don't even hint about this discussion when you and I speak remotely. If you start speaking in code, even if you think you're being clever, the algorithms will pick up on it. You understand?”
Ram looked down at her. “I'll keep my mouth shut, don't worry.”
Milena nodded, leaned in and drew him down to her so that her lips brushed his ear as she whispered. “We should not trust Alina. Nor Noomi.”
Before he could ask her to clarify, Diego kicked them out into the corridor. They walked the rest of the way in silence.
She left him at the airlock to the ludus ring and Ram went on alone, arriving at the mess just in time for lunch. Almost all the other subjects were there, too.
“Good session?” Sifa asked as he took a seat at the table, trying to appear calm.
“It was fine,” Ram said. “Perfectly adequate.”
He wondered if he could tell them what Alina was planning. Instinct told him he should but conspiracies failed when people couldn’t keep their mouth shut. If he told them and they told Zuma, what would happen? Maybe nothing to Alina, she was too valuable, but Ram might find himself nothing but a head again. Or worse.
“Uh-oh,” Te said, nudging Sifa with his elbow. “Check him out. Something happened in there with you and Milena, didn't it, you dirty bastard. While you're boffing Alina at the same time. What a different experience that's got to be. Must be like eating strawberries and cream on one side and dragging sandpaper across your arsehole on the other.”
“Te Zhang,” Sifa said. “You had sex with Alina more than once.”
“Exactly. I know what I'm talking about, don't I.”
“What did the Director want to see you about?” Sifa asked.
“Not much. She just said well done to me for surviving so long, basically. Thanking me for my contribution, summarizing my meager achievements. I guess now that I think about it, she was pretty much doing my obituary in advance.”
“You are such a drama queen,” Sifa said, laughing.
“Speaking of boffing Alina,” Te said between mouthfuls of mashed potato. “Are you guys still going at it? Or has the magic worn off?”
Sifa tutted. “You don't have to answer that, Ram.”
“We're not really doing anything except sleeping. She never really spoke to me anyway and now she just sleeps.”
Sifa and Te exchanged a glance.
“What?” Ram asked.
“Nothing, mate.”
Sifa cleared her throat. “We are hoping Alina does not have another bad episode.”
“A what?”
Te waved his fork in the air, flinging a splatter of mashed potato across the ludus mess table. “You know, one of her episodes.”
“I don't think I know what you mean.”
Sifa frowned. “Did Milena not even tell you? That Alina occasionally reverts to her old ways.”
“As a pit fighter?”
“Mate, come on. You didn't read her file? It’s on the system, same as everyone’s.”
When he had scanned her file, he had felt intrusive. “It's almost entirely blank.”
“Man, maybe they restricted your access or something because you were a conscript, I don't know. Anyway, you know she was Russian military, right? Special forces. At their training facility, they had artificial people in the program. Basically used them for live fire exercises and that kind of thing, they'd use them for dummy hostages or dummy bad guys and then do breach and clear drills with real ammo. Or they've tested different bladed weapons and hand to hand stuff so the trainees would know what it felt like to fight while your hands and arms are drained in hot, drying blood. I don't know, probably it's half bullshit. Enough of it's true anyway because Alina tried to break them out or some mad shit and she got caught. Thrown out. She ran before they could try her. The story goes that she was a member of some pro-AP group when she was still enlisted, or she set up her own organization or maybe she just got involved after she ran. They carried out a few raids and terrorist actions but her little band got killed, arrested. I suppose she gave up on all that and ended up becoming a superstar in the pit fights. But every now and then she goes all intense and quiet and shit and then she goes nuts over dinner and all the time about the poor arties. You know what I reckon? I reckon she was in love with one. Definitely, I mean, think about it.”
Ram found that he was sweating all over. “Guys, can I tell you something? You have to promise—”
Alarms blared, sirens rising and falling and the light strips around the edges of the room flashed red. The doors to the mess slammed shut and echoed with a thud that said they were locked.
Everyone jumped to their feet, ready to fight or flee, looking at each other and at the staff for clues. All anyone saw looking back was confused faces.
“What's going on?” Ram shouted over the noise. Half the subject
s and crew in the mess were asking that question. The other half were just looking worried.
“No idea,” Te said, shrugging. Same as everyone else.
“Milena?” Ram said but there was no response. “Te Zhang, I can't reach my driver.”
“Same here,” Te said. “Must be something big, right?”
People started calling suggestions to each other.
“Solar flare? This far out? Don't be an idiot.”
Genesis, typically loud like all Americans, thought she had the answer. “Gamma ray burst or something cosmic like that, for sure. Like X-rays or whatever, right?”
Jun sat looking down at the floor, which was toward the outer hull. “I think we hit something. An asteroid.”
Eziz turned on her, his face twisted in contempt. “An asteroid? Are you serious? Do you know how fast we are going right now? We'd have been destroyed, moron. Perhaps, though, we are about to hit something.”
“There’s an electric field around the ship pushing asteroids away before they make contact.”
“You don’t know that, we don’t know anything about this ship.”
“It’s fucking standard, alright, that’s what all ships have now.”
“Hey, check out the professional astronaut over here.”
“Fuck you, Gen, alright.”
“Maybe the aliens are attacking us. The Wheelhunters, maybe they're heading us off at the pass.”
“That's just crazy, man, that’s complete nonsense,” Te said. “They want all of us in here because they're up to something. I bet this is just to fuck with us. Part of the training.”
“Wait,” Ram said. “We're not all here, though. Alejandra’s not here. Alina hasn’t come back from her counseling. Where is Mael?”
“Weekly assessment session,” Te said. “Why do you ask?”
Ram’s heart skipped a beat.
It was Alina’s plan was to attack Mael at his assessment the day after.
“Are you sure? It’s not his driver session until tomorrow.”
The alarms kept blaring. Around the mess, crew and subjects argued about what was going on.
“Mael forced them to rearrange his session because he wanted to keep talking to Alejandra. The things they do for that bastards, it’s ridiculous. Imagine if one of us wanted to change our timetable, they’d laugh in our faces. But with him, it’s like he owns the—”
“So he’s in the assessment area, with Alejandra?” Ram said, heart racing.
“That’s what I’m saying, mate. Do you think this alarm is about him?”
He grabbed Sifa and Te, one hand on each of their shoulders. “Alina wasn’t really at her counseling session for most of it, she was with me at mine on the B-Ring. She was heading to the ludus rooms when I last saw her.
Te and Sifa looked at each other.
“Fuck.”
The mess hall door cycled open. The frantic shouting stopped instantly and everyone turned to watch, alarms still sounding above.
A squad of Marines entered, assault rifles in hand. Four soldiers, normal sized, but fit people but moving with fluid efficiency. They were in full combat gear, headsets and body armor, no doubt augmented internally. They moved with perfect synchronization, though whether it was due to augments or good old soldierly practice, Ram couldn’t tell.
The four took up positions around and beside the door with their assault rifles pointing down but held at the ready.
The Marines were met with shouted demands from the subjects.
“What's going on?”
“Why the alarms?”
“Are you here to protect us are you here to watch us?”
“Are those live rounds in your weapons?”
“No way,” Genesis said. “They wouldn’t kill us. Those look like nonlethal rounds.”
Ram remembered she had been a soldier. Some of the other subjects nodded in agreement. Most of the subjects had a military background.
The Marines said nothing, simply held their posts standing at the ready by the door that led out to the sparring room. With their helmets on and visors down it was impossible to read their expressions. The subjects remained pensive but gradually grew bored and sat back down again. Some of them started eating again.
Without warning, the alarms stopped blaring and the lights returned to normal.
The silence was deafening.
Te, Sifa and Ram sat looking at each other. Ram knew that Alina had been caught, she had failed and that their conspiracy had been uncovered before it had got going. He kept glancing at the Marines, wondering if they were going to arrest him. What would the punishment for that kind of thing be on a spaceship? If they were willing to kill Ram just to make Mael happy, then what was stopping them from executing him for an actual crime. Or was conspiracy to commit murder even a crime on a ship that actively condoned it? He was too nervous to speak so he sat drumming his fingers on the table. He hoped Milena was alright.
Someone called out a heads up and Bediako strode in with his assistants trailing behind him like ducklings behind their mother. His dark face was thunder as he planted himself at the head of the room, stuck his fists on his hips and glared at all of them.
A few of the braver people in the room demanded to know what was going on.
When he spoke, Bediako’s voice shook with anger. “Alina attacked Mael. She killed Nurul, Mael's driver. She killed Alejandra. Mael is wounded but it looks as though he'll recover in a few days. Few hours, maybe. He’s the toughest bastard in the galaxy.”
Sifa called out. “And Alina?”
“Are you kidding? Stupid bitch went up against Mael and Alejandra at the same time, what did she think was going to happen? The crew called it in while they were fighting and Dr. Fo flipped Alina and Mael’s switches, otherwise, Alina would have been killed. She's in the infirmary but if she pulls through, I'm going to kill her myself. Now, finish your lunch. Don't think this gets you out of training this afternoon. We're doing triangle chokes and leg locks.”
Ram stared at Sifa and Te. They shook their heads, shocked. Ram wanted to tell them that Alina had planned an attack but that she had gone off schedule, gone crazy, maybe. Instead, he kept his mouth shut and shrugged along with everyone else.
Mael had changed his schedule at the last minute and Alina had seen him, taken a chance, maybe. Whatever, she had failed and now there would be an investigation and their nascent conspiracy would be revealed. Ram's involvement would be uncovered and he would be punished.
Even if he was not, Alina’s failure meant that if Ram didn’t come up with a new plan soon, Mael would certainly kill him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE – ATTACK
“I should have known,” Te said later that night in his room the barracks. The three of them sat in Te's room, Ram on the chair, Te on the bed and Sifa sitting curled up on the floor reading from her screen.
It was shortly before lights out and Ram would retreat to his own quarters soon. He needed to tell them about the conspiracy but was still unsure about what they would jump, whether they would help him or immediately denounce him.
“You should have known what, precisely, Te Zhang?” Sifa said, looking up from her screen. “That Alina would have a violent episode? But we did know, we all did. Did anyone care? You did all you could.”
“Can you imagine how fast and how quiet she must have moved to kill Alejandra and kill Mael's driver before Mael could react? All that without Mael moving quick enough to stop her. I would love to have seen his face when she acted. Would it be fear, do you reckon?”
“I doubt he’d be afraid of anything.”
“Yeah I bet his amygdala is all fucked up,” Te said. “Still, I'd love to see the surprise on his stupid ugly face.”
“I would love to see the whole thing,” Sifa said, sighing. “The whole footage of the incident. For training purposes.”
“They'll never show us that,” Te said, laughing.
“Maybe,” Sifa said. “Do you think what Bediako said was true?
They're going to kill Alina if she recovers? As punishment for murdering Nurul and Alejandra?”
Te scoffed. “No way, mate. Mael kills people all the time and they don’t do anything to him. They'll just heal her up and bring her back. Probably it'll make Mael fight even harder, I bet they love it. Don't listen to Bediako, man, he's all mouth, no trousers.”
Ram laughed. “You're kidding, right? He's terrifying. He's the biggest person here apart from me and he's the lone person to have survived a fight with the Wheelhunter. He’s actually faced one of them, for real.”
Te shrugged. “Yeah? And so what? He lost. You saw the fight, right? You've analyzed it. You been there in the Avar replays?”
“Not really,” Ram said. “I read about it.”
“It's brutal. You know how they told him to last as long as he could and the thing just ran him down and ripped him apart? I mean, he did okay, I guess. But he didn't do well enough and the fact is, he couldn't take any of us on now. So you don't need to be afraid of him, mate.”
“Why couldn't he take us on? He knows his stuff. Even Mael listens to his advice.”
“Advice, yeah. But think about it. If he was so good, why is he not fighting? Why is teaching instead of doing?”
“Because he's got an old model body.”
“Exactly.”
“But I've got an old model body.”
Te scratched his tattooed face. “With upgrades.”
Ram wanted to tell them about the conspiracy, about the AP bodies they had all been transplanted onto. They hated Mael and yet they both truly believed in the mission, in the Orb Project as a whole. Both had given up their lives to carry it out and they might turn him in, they really might.
Still, maybe he could sound them out a little.
“Upgrades?” Ram said, trying to seem casual. “So they tell me but I'm not so sure anymore. I think they've been lying to me since the start.”
Te shrugged. “Probably. They lie to all of us. But do you know what your biggest problem is, mate? You lack self-confidence, son. You’re taking the piss out of that old school body they stuck you into but that was the body you used to smash multiple world strength records. Them be facts.”